so i was on the bus today... and i saw this kid cross the street, a lanky boy of perhaps 11 or 12, with a confident stride, unkempt red-streaked hair, and an acoustic guitar held firmly under his arm. something about that casual yet careful grasp on the treasured instrument that was maybe a little too big for him to play comfortably still, made me smile. he could have been returning home after a lesson, perhaps. i'm envisioning him keeping the red hair and playing in a punk band in a few years' time. ;)

(props to zhuzhu and the amazing tutorial on creating watercolours in photoshop!! i can't quite grasp that loose watercolour-ey gestural way of painting, though, i think perfectionism is firmly imprinted in my blood cells... must..over..work..every..damn..drawing..argh!)

and yes, random sketching has been my distraction from my Exotique project of the birch-tree spirit (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=268374)... I haven't done almost any digital painting this summer, too busy with 2 jobs :( so feeling very rusty, and thinking that a little bit of practice getting back into photoshop will do me good :)

anyway. so here's the sketch.. i might add a background.. not sure...

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/8236/guitarkid15kd.jpg

i think i'll keep this thread to post any random sketches in, to avoid cluttering things up with new threads each time. :)

Matellis

08-21-2005, 11:11 AM

Hey I really like this sketch. you really get the mood of the boy with a big dream in his mind.

Monster_General

08-21-2005, 01:32 PM

Head is really cool ... other parts too cool ... Keep up and let us see how it will be :)

Alexandrite

08-21-2005, 03:28 PM

Matellis and Monster_General, thank you :)
yeah the "big guitar, bigger dream" was what i thought too, i only saw the boy's expression for a few moments from the bus, but... don't know, sometimes i just see people out in the everyday world that are great to sketch, and make stories about, even if i only saw them for a few seconds, they become characters in the mind :)

I might add a background, but not sure, trying to decide if i can summon up some loose scribbling skills, and not over-detail it and take attention from the boy heh.

Alexandrite

09-26-2005, 04:46 AM

Adobe Illustrator = evil. :)
at least, it seemed that way to me at first.
(yep, i am back online and back on these forums! :) updating the random-sketches thread. comments/criticism are always very much appreciated. maybe i can keep this one going longer than my WIPs which had to be set aside for school projects :( )

Well, after freaking out and nearly losing sanity over this damn program, I finally swallowed my pride and looked up some tutorials for how the heck one is supposed to draw in Adobe Illustrator. My assignment for Digital Illustration class was - to do a self-portrait... I swear I will never understand vectors. (I've been forever spoiled by Photoshop, which doesn't argue with me. Why oh why canít I just draw a line precisely where i want it and have it stay there without the computer being a smartarse? Why do i have to make points and drag them around? aaaaaauuuugh!!! After my first introduction to Illustrator, I wanted to run home to my Photoshop and hug it. :) ) but then with the help of tutorials, i figured out how to at least get it to stop selecting lines after they were put down, and making all these points i didn't need, and paint in it the way i would in Flash. i learned a few new things, but mostly, it was good practice just getting around the program (i have never used it before), and staved off the horror of using real vectors for a while longer. i would like to learn it properly, not only as a Flash-painting-alternativeÖ but hey thatís why iím taking the class. :) I've seen some absolutely mind-blowing vector art created by people here, it made me want to try to understand this program more. :)
(the final project will be to draw a 3D-ish object. eek.)

anyway... i would have drawn someone else but the assignment called for a self portrait, so here i am :)